


Antithesis

by evanlinge



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 05:56:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evanlinge/pseuds/evanlinge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uzumaki Naruto is the orphan of legend, and the child of monsters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Antithesis

 

Uzumaki Naruto's earliest memories are of death. A translucent hand reaching through his own stomach, through the Yondaime's chest, and the _tear_ , as demonic chakra screams through his body and mind.

He can still recall the sharp contraction of the Yondaime's pupils as his heart stutters to a halt, and hear the sickening crunch of bones when the young kage falls, dead before he hits the ground.

 

He is careful to never reiterate these vague memories. It's only partially because he is not entirely certain whose they are.

 

–

 

Naruto is unsettled when he meets his genin team, with the way his new teacher looks at him as if he has seen a ghost, and with the rush of familiarity that curls into his chest.

He makes certain to smile wider and brighter, until his eyes crinkle and Kakashi-sensei looks away.

 

He doesn't miss the way Kakashi-sensei's hand lingers on his shoulder just a fraction of a second too long, nor how he jerks away like he's been burned when Naruto glances up at him, all wide blue eyes and tinted goggles.

 

–

 

Naruto wakes, fleeting images of countless massacred Iwa-nin littering the red battlefields at his feet, seared behind his eyelids. His breath turns cold while his cheeks are dry, and he thinks he can taste gold and iron on his tongue.

 

 _Gold for the_ _Hiraishin_ _, iron for the_ _filthy_ _blood that has seeped into the pores of his skin and contaminated his veins._

 

He doesn't realize he has been holding his breath until foreign chakra smoulders in his lungs. Naruto stands under the hot water longer that morning, scrubbing the blood that the Yondaime has spilled from his little hands.

 

–

 

Kakashi is surprised when Naruto doesn't hesitate during his first kill, nor the ones that come afterwards.

He shouldn't be. Naruto has never feared death; it is the same taste, the same colour, the same smell, as the chakra that provides equilibrium when the Yondaime's threatens to overwhelm him.

 

–

 

_It is the perfect counterbalance. Naruto is as much the Kyuubi's child as he is Minato's._

 

 


End file.
